A couple of months ago, I decided to go back to university to complete a Masters degree in Media and Communication. I had been back in Australia for a month, was on the verge of being dumped from afar and had no job, car or money to speak of. Wrenching myself out of bed, I made a few calls and photocopied a few documents. A few weeks later I was accepted. Then I told some of my friends about my news and they just replied with blank stares and asked, "why?"
I figured that further study was something eyed with favor among most people. But then I remembered where I was living - when I was living - and was reminded that I dwell in the Age of Bad Decisions.
Generation Y was one of the economically blessed generations in modern history. I remember when getting a job was merely a formality - if you didn't like it, you could always change. Taking that sojourn abroad was as easily said and done. Study? Well, if it didn't yield you your dream career at the end of it, there was something deficient in your character.
Working hard was optional and strategic thinking even more so. Fuck it, buy that big screen TV on credit. Spend the extra money at the pub. Another pair of designer jeans never hurt anyone.
But what it fundamentally contradicted for so many people was that their love for economic risk didn't match their confidence in all other areas. The material abundance wasn't an indicator for abundance in more abstract yet just as valuable things; such as love, brotherhood and knowledge.
Even a decision in and of itself to return to study, to expand my skills and really concentrate my know-how seemed like a ludicrous one in the face of the Bad Decision Maker. It has no obvious monetary benefit; it does not glisten; it does not come with 3G; it does not make popcorn in less than three minutes. We drown in oceans of abstracts but we cling to the material for comfort. We stay in "loving" relationships even though our partners may treat us badly and cause us despair. Our arrangements are less than ideal because we allow them to be. We utter words like "don't" and "can't" and think this is the end; that nothing more is possible.
For some, their tunnels of reality have shrunken down in this Age to only allow a pinhole of light to rush through. Some have merely forgotten that we as humans can do so much more than earn and spend. We can think, we can do and we can live, too.